Suzie's crepes

Suzie's crepes

I feel as though I saw the future last night.

See, after reading all this stuff about food, I got, well . . . hungry. So I went to Sapporo-Ya in JapanTown (in San Francisco) for comfort food: a big steaming bowl of cha-shu (roast pork) ramen and some gyoza (Japanese potstickers-->when good, much better than Chinese ones).

As I went into the restaurant (which is on the second floor of a 2-story pseudo-Japanese mall-like building) and again as I came out, I was surprised to see a large crowd of Asian teens "hanging out". After eating I decided to see what was attracting them--and then I noticed several of them were holding large ice cream cone-like things and smiling. I looked for the source and found Suzie's.

Here's the deal. These are crepes, see, 12 to 14 inches in diameter and thin. Cooked the traditional way (on a flat, metal surface) but not served the traditional way (or, at least, the way I'm used to seeing them)--flat with the goodies on top or rolled with the goodies inside. These were folded into a cone shape with large dollops of whatever you chose to fill them with scooped into the open top like an ice cream cone only about twice the size. And the cone shape meant that, like an ice cream cone, you could grab it and walk out with it.

Available stuffings seemed to include both sweet and savory starting with ice cream in numerous flavors and chocolate sauce, nuts and whipped cream, but there were also fruits, cheeses meats and lots of other stuff.

OK, the idea is like a waffle cone, but the crepes remain soft and crepe-like (although the fact that they are folded double makes them stiff enough to remain in the cone shape).

Anyway, I'm trying to diet, see, and after just eating a big meal I did NOT feel like I could have one of these things but they looked sooooo good. And the kids seemed to be loving them. And I could picture a franchised Suzie's (or something like it) in every mall and strip center on earth.